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Andreas Hale
Puerto Rican WBO junior middleweight champion Xander Zayas is planning for a breakout 2026.
Xayas, 23, is currently the youngest world champion in boxing. He recently signed a marketing deal with Rimas Sports to expand his reach beyond the ring. With the firm — co-owned by fellow Puerto Rican and world-famous recording artist Bad Bunny — pursuing sponsorships, marketing initiatives and commercial partnerships for Zayas, the champion can focus on bringing more gold back to his hometown and building upon the historic success of Puerto Ricans in the sport.
“The publicity and marketing deal I just signed is to bring opportunities outside of the ring that I probably wasn’t getting before,” Zayas (22-0, 13 KOs) told ESPN. “Everybody knows what I can do in the ring, but this deal is huge for me as I plan to elevate my career outside of just boxing.”
The company, which focuses primarily on Latin American athletes, also represents MLB stars Ronald Acuna and Fernando Tatis Jr. and recently signed fellow Puerto Rican boxer Juanmita Lopez, son of former two-division champion Juan Manuel Lopez.
“This relationship with Rimas Sports is something that Xander had created organically over the past several years,” Zayas’ and Lopez’s manager Peter Kahn said to ESPN.
Zayas and Bad Bunny have had a friendly relationship over the years, with Bad Bunny sharing a video celebrating Zayas’ recent world title win over Jorge Garcia Perez backstage at his concert. Zayas teased that there could be future collaborations between the boxer and Bad Bunny.
“We now have the biggest Latino musician in the world who has Puerto Rican pride and wants to guide these athletes,” Kahn continued. “For us, this was a no brainer.”
Even with the world-renowned artist behind him, Zayas is aware that he still must take care of business in the ring and is looking ahead to hopefully compete three times in 2026.
“[Top Rank] said they would like me to fight three times next year,” he said. “Starting in January, Puerto Rican Day parade weekend in June and then one more time before the year ends in December.”
Sources have told ESPN that a unification fight between Zayas and WBA champion Abass Baraou is being negotiated to take place in Puerto Rico in January. Zayas had hoped to get another fight before the end of the year but explained why a December fight with rival Vergil Ortiz, who faces Erickson Lubin on Nov. 8, was grounded before it had any serious chance of taking off.
Their back-and-forth started last year, when Oritz and Zayas traded barbs on social media after a fight between the two fell apart. According to Kahn, Zayas agreed to fight Ortiz in Saudi Arabia in early 2025, but Ortiz opted to instead face Israil Madrimov.
“Your time will come, don’t you worry,” Ortiz said on X. “We got bigger fish to fry over here.”
In August, Ortiz posted on X about Zayas having a deadline to accept an offer to fight that Golden Boy president Eric Gomez sent to Top Rank chief Carl Moretti. Zayas responded and stated that although he agreed to fight Ortiz, the offer provided wasn’t legitimate and was missing important details.
“It wasn’t an offer,” Zayas said. “An offer means a purse, date and venue. What they sent did not include any of that. They wanted a 50-50 pay-per-view split for a fight in either Vegas or California sometime in December. That’s not a real offer. This was a conversation starter.”
The key sticking point for Zayas was that, as the champion, he wanted the fight to take place in Puerto Rico. Everything else could be sorted out.
“We never said no to anything,” he continued. “All I wanted was the fight to happen in Puerto Rico. But the one thing that was missing was a guarantee. What are we splitting 50% of? They had to offer me something, but they instead went with Lubin.”
Could a fight with Ortiz happen in 2026 during Puerto Rican Day parade weekend in New York? Zayas hopes so but won’t limit his options.
“That could be the fight,” he said. “We’ll see where the year takes us. I ain’t scared of him, and I know he isn’t scared of me. It just has to be the right business deal for both of us.”